Response to the union's quite extraordinary decision to back statutory underpinning without polling its members - who are to blame for not reading their emails and working for evil Rupert Murdoch!!!

Apologies for blogging to you instead of joining the hoardes cancelling their memberships via the most ironic email address in the UK at the moment - namely info@nuj.org.uk.

You see I've been a journalist for more years than I care to remember, and my blood still boils when people in my own industry ignore that it is supposed to be about communication.

Yesterday I and others exchanged tweets with someone who sounded like he'd been named after a washing machine - Donnacha DeLong. I later learned via his own profile that he is an anarchist - quite appropriate for how you have destroyed your membership in the last 24 hours!

Our exchange was prompted by UK Press Gazette online poll in which the magazine was asking journalists if they agreed with the NUJ's decision to support state regulation of the industry (Yes really they did support it!).

According to Mr DeLong the poll was inaccurate - as such a small number of people were taking part.

He then went on to reveal that just 200 delegates had taken the decision to back statutory underpinning out of a NUJ membership of 4,000 - ie less than actually took part on the UKPG poll which overwhelmingly rejected it.

The following is based on real people and real characters in the real world:

So there we have it - 200 delegates, no doubt among their number the hard line journalism lecturers ranting at the Guardian for not supporting state regulation, deciding what is good for 4,000 members.Indeed many seemed to be only finding out via Twitter - so much for the NUJ emails.